


Hold On

by RoseLaflesh



Series: Learning to Dance [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Amidot, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Kissing, Movie Night, One Shot, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 07:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7882006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseLaflesh/pseuds/RoseLaflesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After failing to recapture what got them to fuse the first time, Steven tries to cheer Amethyst and Peridot up with a movie night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold On

**Author's Note:**

> This took me a little longer to finish than I thought. Then again, I did just pack up all my stuff and put it in my car to move 3600 kilometers from Alberta to Ontario, so I guess most people would take a while to write about 2000 words. 
> 
> There is definitely going to be more short Amidot stories in this series. It's mostly going to follow one plot line kind of like how the show is set up. Usually I'd make this one big story, but those have been burning me out lately, and so far I've been having fun doing it this way. I hope you're enjoying these as well.

Amethyst placed her hands on Peridot’s shoulders. “Are you ready?”

“I was made ready,” Peridot said, firmly grabbing Amethyst’s waist.

After their clumsy attempt at fusion in the house, both gems agreed that they should pick a spot with more space the next time they fuse. Following Garnet’s suggestion, they now stood on the beach in front of the temple with an audience of Crystal Gems standing on the front deck.

“You can do it,” Steven cheered.

Both gems took a deep breath. “Alright, let’s do this,” Amethyst said.

Peridot glanced at the others. “Do they really have to watch?”

“Come on, it’s not every day that you get to see a new fusion.” Amethyst put her forehead onto Peridot’s. “Just try to ignore them.”

Peridot locked her eyes on Amethyst. “Okay.”

“Besides, it’s not like this is anything to worry about. We’re just two good friends dancing.”

“Yes. Two good friends.” Peridot said.

They began dancing, but something felt off. A few steps in, a bit of sand slipped from under Peridot’s feet and both gems fell down. They got up and tried a few more times, but each time, something was tripping them up.

“I think yesterday was a fluke,” Peridot groaned from underneath Amethyst.

“No, I think we can do it. We just need to try again,” Amethyst said, scrambling to get off of Peridot.

Peridot just shook her head. Feeling too frustrated to move.

“Alright. Show’s over.” Garnet said to the disappointment of the others and began walking down to the beach.

“Come on. One more try. We can get it.” Amethyst held out a hand to help Peridot up.

“There’s no need to push it,” Garnet said, setting a hand on Amethyst’s shoulder, “Things will happen in due time.”

“I don’t understand. We had it.”

“For less than ten seconds,” Peridot said from the ground.

“You weren’t always able to fuse with Pearl. What stopped you back then?”

Amethyst shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”

“Give it time. I know you two can figure things out.” Garnet gave both gems a reassuring smile and held out a hand to help Peridot up.

Peridot let out a tired sigh and grabbed onto Garnet’s wrist, allowing herself to be lifted to her feet.

“You two are both my good friends and I love you both. I know you’ll figure out what that means, and what it means to be together.” Garnet lowered her glasses to wink with her middle and left eye before heading back to the temple.

“What does that supposed to mean?” Peridot asked.

“I don’t know. Garnet likes to be mysterious sometimes.”

“Really? That doesn’t make sense. Neither Rubies nor Sapphires are known for being indirect. How does she get that way?”

“That’s the thing about fusion. It can result in some crazy and unexpected things.”

“The more I know about fusion, the less I understand.”

“That’s why I try not to understand anything. Come on, let’s go back inside.” Amethyst patted Peridot on the back and they went back in.

Steven greeted them at the door with several DVDs in his hands. “I know you two must be feeling bad for not getting the fusion, so I grabbed these.” He held out the movies, fanning them out the best he could.

“Gee, thanks.” Peridot took some of the movies from his hands.

“I thought we could end the day on a better note with a movie night, just the three of us.”

“That sounds pretty good,” Amethyst said.

“We’re not watching these,” Peridot said, holding out several animated movies.

“Why not?”

“I don’t trust the smiles on those animals and the facial features are terrifyingly distorted.” 

“Okay,” Steven said, taking the DVDs from Peridot, “Fair enough. That still leaves plenty of movies to watch.”

“Let’s watch this one,” Amethyst said, pulling Titanic from the choices.

“Really? I thought you didn’t like that one,” Steven said, “The first half was too boring.”

“Well, it kind of is, but it’d probably be easier to watch without Pearl complaining about all the inaccuracies the whole time. Besides, I’m kind of in the mood for something a little more boring.”

“Well, okay then. I’ll get some popcorn going.”

“Nah, you get the movie started and I’ll make the popcorn. How do you want it?”

“Covered in chocolate syrup and jelly beans.”

“Alright. Peridot?”

“I will just have what you’re having,” Peridot stammered.

“Gottcha.” Amethyst went into the kitchen and tossed a couple bags of popcorn into the microwave.

“So what is this movie about?”

“Well, it’s based off this thing that actually happened. It’s about this rich girl who has to marry this rich man but she falls in love with the poor boy, and then the ship sinks… and, well, I don’t want to spoil too much.” Steven put the movie into the DVD player and they watched the opening screen of various movie scenes as Amethyst finished making the popcorn.

She handed Steven his popcorn and placed a bowl on Peridot’s lap, sitting between her and Steven. 

“What are those?” Peridot asked, pointing to the chunks sitting between the popcorn.

“Those are anchovies. Those are baby carrots. I don’t know what those were, but I put them in anyway.”

“And it tastes good?” Peridot asked.

“It’s not about taste, it’s about how it feels going down.” Amethyst grabbed a handful of popcorn and shoved it into her mouth. “Come on, let’s get this movie started.” She grabbed the remote from Steven and hit play.

The movie began to play. The three of them watched, eating their popcorn, with the occasional question from Peridot.

“Why is it such a big deal that Ruth doesn’t marry this Troy person?”

“I think back then you had to marry who your parents wanted," Steven said.

“But it's obvious that he's mean. Why don't her parents want her with the person who's treating her nice?"

“Because she's rich and if she marries Troy she'll become poor."

“But…” Peridot began to say before Amethyst shushed her.

“Remember the movie night rules?” Amethyst said.

“Don’t try to put real life logic to fiction,” Peridot grumbled, “But isn’t this based on a true story?”

“The characters aren’t real. What happens with the ship actually happened more or less.”

“Then why didn’t they use real people?” Steven and Amethyst shushed Peridot again.

They continued to watch the movie, everyone eventually suspending disbelief enough to begin to really enjoy it. Beyond the occasional joke, they enjoyed the movie quietly until they reached the point where the ship begins sinking.

“No! Don’t leave him!” Peridot shouted as Troy pulled Ruth away from John and towards the life boats.

Steven and Amethyst quietly enjoyed Peridot’s reaction of joy as Ruth jumped back onto the sinking ship to be with John. By the end of the movie, Amethyst had long finished both hers and Steven’s popcorn while Steven and Peridot were crying on either side of her as they watched John’s frozen body sink to the bottom of the ocean. As the credits began moving up the screen, Steven had calmed himself down, but Peridot was still bawling.

“Why did John have to die?” Peridot cried. 

Amethyst wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “Because that's how the movie ends."

“He should have found more wood. He should have saved himself.”

“Sometimes bad things happen. That's just how things go," Amethyst said with a shrug.

“I know, but it's a movie. They could have had it end anyway they wanted.”

“They just wanted to make the whole thing seem more dramatic. Pearl said that they made it look a lot worse than it actually was,” Steven said. “Hardly anyone actually died, mom and everyone saved the day.”

“I don’t care what happened in real life. In the movie John sacrifices himself to save someone he loves. Why can’t I find someone like that?”

Amethyst frowned. “Come on, let’s head back to the barn. It’s late. I think we should let Steven get some sleep.” She patted Peridot on the back.

Both gems said their goodbyes and took the warp back to the barn. There was a short walk across the field. The first part was done in silence. Nothing to do but take in the chirp of crickets, the glow of the moon, and the tension that built up between the two of them.

“We’re just friends right,” Peridot asked, putting emphasis on the word just.

Amethyst tried to answer but fumbled with her words.

“Well,” Peridot said once it was clear she wasn’t getting an answer out of Amethyst, “This is a purely hypothetical scenario that doesn’t really mean anything one way or the other and I’ve just been thinking about it because of the movie, but what if we were more than just friends.”

Amethyst didn’t answer. The question raced around her mind like a rubber ball in a small box. She was scared about how Peridot felt, and what scared her most of all was how she felt. The way her insides twisted up every time there wasn’t something to distract her. While her mouth couldn’t answer, her hand did. Her fingers brushed against Peridot’s. Fingers intertwine, and they began walking closer to each other. Paces matched exactly like there was only one mind moving them.

As they reached the barn, Peridot stopped dead in her tracks. Her grip on Amethyst tightened. Amethyst took one more step before she noticed Peridot had stopped. She turned to look at her. Moon light glistened from her green gem.

“Look, I know you don’t feel the same way for me that I do for you,” Peridot said.

“What do you mean? How do you feel about me?”

“I don’t know. How do you feel about me?”

“I…” Amethyst began to say but the words couldn’t quite come out. Instead, like before, she let her movements do the talking. She grabbed Peridot’s other hand and leaned forward. Peridot closed the gap, and they kissed.

They let go of each other’s hands so that they could wrap their arms around each other, embracing as tightly as possible. Lips pressed against each other, twitching in a desire to deepen the kiss, but too hesitant to do more than slightly part. They remained entwined for a good while. Not needing to breathe, they only parted when they felt ready to speak again.

“So…” Peridot began to say.

“I think I would like us to be more than just friends,” Amethyst interrupted.

Peridot’s eyes lit up and sparkled with joy. “Really.”

“Yeah, Peridot. I think I… I think you’re great.” Amethyst gave Peridot a friendly pat on the back.

Peridot was too overjoyed to notice. “You’re great too.” She leaned in for another kiss. They had a long kiss goodbye before Amethyst left to head back to the temple.

Peridot just about floated back into the barn. Lapis looked up from her magazine.

“Did that really just happen?” She asked.

“What? That I’m now the girlfriend of Amethyst. Yes. Yes it did.”

“So, are you two going to be hanging around fused all the time?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think that far ahead. Let’s just see how things turn out.” Peridot skipped over to a pile of scrap metal and began working on her next big meep morp project.

The sound of the warp pad brought Steven out of the beginnings of sleep. In the dim light of his room, he could see Amethyst walking towards the temple door.

“How’s Peridot?” He asked.

Amethyst jumped a little, not expecting anyone to bother her. “Oh, she’s fine.”

“She seemed pretty upset about the movie.”

“Yeah, well, she’s better now.”

There was a moment of tense silence. “You don’t sound too happy. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Amethyst ran her hand over her head, letting her fingers trail through her hair. “Me and Perry are dating now.”

“Really! That’s great.”

“Yeah. She’s great. She’s funny and nice and wonderful. She’s a great gem.”

“How come you don’t sound excited.”

“I am. I’m super excited. I’m just tired from all the excitement of earlier so I’m going to head to my room.”

“Alright. Goodnight.” Steven yawned and set his head back on his pillow.

“Goodnight,” Amethyst said with a smile before going into her room. 

Once the door closed she took a few steps towards the nearest junk pile and flopped face first onto the ground. The rubber ball of the first question was still bouncing around her head and now it was joined by a swarm of racing thoughts, each one demanding her attention. Some happy, most scared.

“What the hell am I doing?”


End file.
